ept me from going crazy with despair.
I'm a plain man, an uneducated man, but the fortune I've made has been
made honestly, and I'm going to spend it for the good of the American
people--to contribute my mite toward helping the cause of truth and good
citizenship and free and independent ideas which this nation calls for.
I'm going to give my money for benevolent uses."

"Oh, Mr. Parsons," exclaimed Selma, clasping her hands, "how splendid!
how glorious! How I envy you. It was what I hoped."

"I knew you would be pleased. I've had half a mind once or twice to let
the cat out of the bag, because I guessed it would be the sort of thing
that would take your fancy; but somehow I've kept mum, for fear I might
be taken before I'd been able to make a will. And then, too, I've been
of several minds as to the form of my gift. I thought it would suit me
best of all to found a college, and I was disappointed when I learned
that neighbor Flagg had got the start of me with his seminary for women
across the river. I wasn't happy over it until one night, just after the
doctor had gone, the thought came to me, 'Why, not give a hospital?' And
that's what it's to be. Five hundred thousand dollars for a free
hospital in the City of Benham, in memory of my wife and daughter.
That'll be useful, won't it? That'll help the people as much as a
college? And, Selma," he added, cutting off the assuring answer which
trembled on her tongue and blazed from her eyes, "I shan't forget you.
After I'm gone you are to have twenty thousand dollars. That'll enable
you, in case you don't marry, to keep a roof over your head without
working too hard."

"Thank you. You are very generous," she said. The announcement was
pleasant to her, but at the moment it seemed of secondary importance.
Her enthusiasm had been aroused by the fact and character of his public
donation, and already her brain was dancing with the thought of the
prospect of a rival vital institution in connection with which her views
and her talents would in all probability be consulted and allowed to
exercise themselves. Her's, and not Mrs. Taylor's, or any of that
censorious and restricting set. In that hospital, at least, ambition and
originality would be allowed to show what they could do unfettered by
envy or paralyzed by conservatism. "But I can't think of anything now,
Mr. Parsons, except the grand secret you have confided to me. A
hospital! It is an ideal gift. It will show the world wh